Marysville adopts mandatory sentences for repeated ‘public disorder’

MARYSVILLE — The Marysville City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance Monday setting mandatory minimum jail sentences for repeat offenders of certain crimes, such as theft and public drug use.

The law identifies four “public disorder crimes,” including third-degree theft, criminal trespassing, vehicle prowling and public drug use.

“Those who continue to commit crimes in Marysville will face real consequences for their actions,” Mayor Jon Nehring said in a statement, “along with an opportunity to choose a better path.”

Under the new local law, someone found guilty of their third public disorder crime in five years would be sentenced to at least 30 days in jail. The third conviction must come after the law took effect.

The law was created in collaboration with the mayor, City Attorney Jon Walker and Police Chief Erik Scairpon.

In an interview Tuesday, Nehring said most “public disorder” crimes are committed by people trying to finance a drug habit — often involving fentanyl. The ordinance was intended to get people into rehabilitation programs.

After sentencing, a person who received a mandatory minimum sentence can petition the Marysville Municipal Court to enter treatment instead. After completing the program, defendants can have the rest of their jail term nixed.

“With fentanyl, almost nobody will voluntarily go into treatment,” Nehring said. “The beauty of it is, we will have that jail sentence hanging out there to motivate them to stay in treatment. If they don’t have a reason to stay, they’ll walk out.”

Nehring said, as of now, the average stay in the Marysville Municipal Jail is five to six days. With the new city ordinance, his hope is people will have enough time to get medically assisted treatment and enter rehab.

The law firm Feldman & Lee, which contracts with the city to do public defense work, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Each minimum sentence jumps to 60 days if a defendant had four crimes, or 90 days if the defendant had six crimes within five years. If someone is convicted of two or more public disorder crimes on the same day, then a mandatory minimum sentence must be imposed for each.

City Council member Mark James also said the aim of the law was to get repeat offenders into treatment.

“We’re not a one-sided, hard-on-crime kind of place,” James said. “Part of the idea is they’ll be sitting there longer and we can get them thinking differently.”

Council President Kamille Norton strongly believes the local law will send a message.

“Marysville residents and businesses have been victimized by chronic and repeat offenders of these public disorder crimes long enough,” Norton said. “We do not accept or tolerate this criminal behavior here.”

Mandatory minimum sentences are controversial.

In 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union testified in front of Congress that mandatory minimums should be abolished because they “generate unnecessarily harsh sentences, tie judges’ hands in considering individual circumstances, create racial disparities in sentencing and empower prosecutors to force defendants to bargain away their constitutional rights.”

Jazmyn Clark, the Smart Justice campaign policy program director for the ACLU of Washington, said in a statement last month that incarceration disrupts people’s lives — and often, just makes recovery more difficult for vulnerable people.

“City officials see this mandatory minimum proposal as a way to combat the fentanyl crisis and substance use disorder,” Clark said. “But we cannot punish people into recovery.”

Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @snocojon.